Rocky Mountain High

June 29, 2009 - Sandborn's Western Camps. I'm back at camp after a 3 week shift to Beaverton. I went back there to spend time with my dad and mom when my mom went onto hospice care. Then yesterday I found myself transported back into the wilderness of Colorado. It was surreal. All my attention and thoughts back home were just there, back home, paying attention, for the most part, to want was going on in the moment, and maybe figuring out the next days events.

When I had first got here in early June, Joyce and I had just completed a 10 day road trip to get here. Since this was our goal, it was very much part of our daily being. This time, it was an immediate change, with my thoughts still back at home on the events of the day. And on the trip from the airport to camp, we got to hear Michael Jackson from beyond the dead (the radio station had a guest who could channel people from beyond). So when I woke up Sunday morning and looked out the window and only saw hills and trees, it didn't really seem real. Now, after 2 days, it's almost real.

I'm currently inside with the longest thunderstorm of the season still flashing and thumping outside. We're living in a 5 bedroom home with Ashley and Travis.

Cont'd 6/30/09 - This is not a luxurious 5 bedroom house, but a utilitarian one. It was originally built to house research students at PPRS (Pikes Peak Research Station). Four bedrooms upstairs with a bath and a third, with the third crammed into a space not much bigger than a shower. Three of the 4 rooms have sinks in them, which helps a lot.

Downstairs has a living room, and kitchen big enough for 1 person at a time, a bathroom with the bath portion converted into laundry room, and a nice size bedroom that Ashley and Travis share with Kevin.

Of course the yard is fantastic, about a thousand + acres of wilderness. It comes complete with wild -flowers and -animals. There are only 4 types of trees that grow on the property - Blue Spruce, Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine and Aspen. Check out www.SanbornWesternCamps.com for more details about the camp itself.

The last 2 days I've been driving for trips. Monday was for Harvard/Yale. This is a 4 day adventure with hikes up two 14,000+ foot peaks - Harvard and Yale. This also includes a backpack hike into the campsite. The drive was nice, I got to drive one of the mini-vans, not a 15 passenger one (which I could if I wanted to since I did go through the 1 day van driver training course, and passed I'm assuming since they are letting me drive.) I only had 3 others with me, all counselors. Getting there wasn't too much trouble until the last 3 miles. Here we came onto a short uphill span that had an exposed drainage pipe across the road. About half was exposed, but what made it tough were all the potholes on both sides of it. We tried the mini, but it looked like it was going to bottom out. The 15 passenger van had no trouble - wider wheelbase and higher clearance. So the plan was for it to drop off their load and come pick up the people and gear from my van.

Shortly after they took off a Chevy Aveo or Traverse came by and passed the obstacle without much problem. If they could do it I could do it. And we did, with little effort and no scrapping. Of course the 1st van did not know we were coming, and while I wasn't surprised to meet it coming back the other way, I was surprise since I was concentrating so much on the worst part of the road we had encountered. It was uphill, windy, dropped off steeply to the driver side into the river below (not it'll kill you if you go off, just I'll really mess up your day and maybe you kind of treacherous) and a ill placed big rock that forced you to the downhill side of the road with not much extra between you and the edge, especially from the drivers point of view. Anyway, Beth was not about to back the van up the road to a spot I could pass, so I got to back down the worst spot of the road. I thought it was bad enough going up, it was worse going down - always being afraid that I'd forget about the front tires location as I concentrated on back end not hitting the uphill side of the road, running off the road on the downhill side and missing the big stone. It sure seemed to me that I got the front tire right on the edge a couple times, and I did pretty much back over a good portion of the large rock. But I made it, found a spot to pull off the road. We then piled into the van and let the other driver take up the rest of the way.

The drop off was a breeze. The group invited the drivers to share their lunch of bagels and fixings. So after dining we set off back to camp. Since the vans were not needed until the next day I was told I could take a scenic route home, which I did. We both stopped in Buena Vista to peruse the outdoor equipment store. We then separated and I headed to Fairplay, home of South Park City - a reconstructed mining town of the late 1800's. I didn't go in, but I think I visited it about 10 years ago during a business trip to Denver. I did take advantage of the cell service to call my dad (camp has very limited cell access) and treated myself to a great 2 scoop ice cream cone.

I proceeded the round-about way back going through Jefferson cut off to Tarryall, past the Tarryall reservoir, into Lake George and back to Florissant.

Today's trip was much less exciting, taking a group to hike the Oxford / Belford mountains. This group gets to summit both peaks in one day (after getting up at 2 am) since the peaks are only about 1.2 miles apart across a saddle that only drops them about 700 feet. This group does get to hike an additional 10 mile to get to their pick up spot.

The other driver on this trip was Ashley, so we got to site see a little together. We walked Buena Vista a little looking mostly for good chocolate, and had lunch in Hartsel at Dorothy's Homemade Tamales. Not a bad place, but Dorothy was out so we did not get to meet her.

Joyce left today for a 2 night camping trip where her group will be doing Picasso art. Even though she loves camping she wasn't very excited. Part of it I think is the pending cold and probably rain. But Ashley did set her up pretty well with camping gear, there are 4 or 5 other counselors on the trip and I did remind her she could always sleep in one of the vans. This will probably be the only time in my life that I get to see her actually wearing a full size backpack. They are really doing car camping, so the pack is mostly for show and a vehicle to contain her stuff to get it to and from camp.

Well, off to work on an-other project - cleaning the bark off a Ponderosa Pine log so the girls can use it to create a totem pole.

Reporting from Florissant,
Paul